Machu Picchu
I visited Machu Picchu today and hiked up the overlooking smaller mountain, Huayna Picchu (”little mountain”). Here´s my journal entry from my highest point….
Sitting on a rock on the peak of Huayna Picchu at 2,400 m, looking down at the Machu Picchu ruins and across at Machu Picchu mountain. Took me just over an hour to climb the 400 m steep and winding crude rock stairs up from the mid-point base at Machu Picchu´s sacred rock, huffing and puffing all the way. I wasn´t alone. You sign in at the entrance, and they only allow 400 people up at a time. It is one of the two best views of the ruins; the other I will not attempt, as its stairs are steeper and, at times, are ladders, which I think will upset my already strangely aching wrist (I blame it on mild carpel tunnel). The view is amazing and almost dizzying, and I hope the pictures and videos will do the cascading terraces, stone-walled and roofless structures, lawns, plazas, and temples more justice than any words could.
I am up here with people from all different countries, who are speaking Castellano, English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, and a few more languages I didn´t recognize. There are lizards, bee-like insects, housefly-like insects (but both these and the bee ones are thinner and longer), butterflies, moths, little birds, hawks, worms, and all sorts of jungle- and mountain-like plants and trees. This is as much hiking as I will do here, as I am sure I´ll need a day of rest tomorrow.
I think this is the highest I´ve ever been in the world, besides being in a plane. And I have to thank my parents for it. They raised me so well that I was able to make it this far up in life. I found a rock for my mom along the way, with little chips of quartz, which she likes. And while crouching to take a close-up of a lizard, I happened to notice a piece of brown weathered glass. I picked it up and felt it´s edges, no longer sharp from its time atop this mountain. I nearly fell over when I saw it, because that it was weathered as if by the sea. And the one thing my dad loved to do at the beach was walk and collect sea glass. So this worn piece of glass is for him.
This is like nothing in the States, though VT, NH, WA, and CA are beautiful in similar green sort of way (but, of course, contain no centruries-old ruins). It is truly a wonder of the world, preserved ever since it´s discovery in the early 1900s. The Spaniards didn´t find this city and, therefore, could not wreck it as they did virtually all other Incan traces, because they deemed them pagans. I have to admit, I now resent less the tourist-only serving town of Aguas Calientes that is located 8 km from the ruins and sprung up to accomodate travelers like me. My initail feeling, while stepping off the train among craft peddleers and hostal pushers, was “que fea” (”how ugly”). I hate sticking out like a sore thumb and feeling like a dollar sign covers my face in the eyes of the people who live here (population 2,000 or so). But I understand the town now more and am thankful that it´s there to help us out-of-towners while we tour the ruins–even though everything, including the ruins, is expensive.
I´ve met some people along the way on this climb, usually while pausing to take breaths, having clips of conversations: “high enough for ya?” and “how much further” and “no, go ahead, I need the rest” and “I know I´m young, but the asthma slows me down.” I´ve made a resolution up here to stop being a dipshit to my body, not follow the stubborn health patterns of my relatives, and start taking preventative care of myself. I will suck it up (literally) and start taking the daily prescription inhaler that was recommended years ago. Could it be that I want to live life to the fullest for as long as I possibly can? I think so. I want to see more of these beautiful sites in the world. And I´ve always wanted to do everything, and this time away from home has actually helped me think I really can do everything. Now I´m going do my best to conquer it all–how´s that for stubborn?!
It´s almost noon, and I´ve been wanderng the ruins since 6:30 am. They are well-kempt, and with the $40 entrance fee they should be. I saw the Hut of the Funerary, the agricultural terraces, the cascading sacred baths, the three windows temple, the major plaza, Intihuana (explained later), the sacred rock, tres portadas and morteros (not totally clear about what these were, but they have some religious significance, I think), Temple of the Condor, Temple of the Sun, casa of the Incan priests, the Incan trail from afar, and this here (big) little mountain Huayna Picchu, which has a fort at the top.
My favorite places were the Intihuana and the Temple of the Condor. The Intihuana has a pillar that helped the Incas with agriculture by aiding in the prediction of the solstices. At the Temple of the Condor, the Incas sacrificed animals to the gods, and there is a cave beneath one of the natural wing-shaped rocks that is inaccessible now, but part of it is still open and is dank and mysterious. The Temple of the Sun was neat, with its snake-like stonework, which was a functional more than a decorative design having something to do with hanging things from the holes; but it is also inaccessible, so not as fun as wandering through the old houses of the urban sector or the cells of the prison or priests´quarters, even though their stonework was not as intricate as the temples´.
The sun has been showing through in patches all day, and there was some cool eery mist in the morning. A colder breeze is coming in now, and I thought I felt a drop of rain. Time to descend, but I could stay up here all day. I wonder how many steps I climbed? Someone said they lost count after 880. We decided we´d multiply that by ten. Imagine doing that trek with no shoes on? Go Incas.
